THE rhythms of Christmas used to be so simple. Buy presents in December, eat and drink too much, return unwanted gifts, then hunt bargains in the January sales. Such habits may now be altered by the arrival on British shores of Black Friday, an American retail phenomenon.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. This year it falls on November 28th. As Thanksgiving day revolves around the eating, so Black Friday revolves around the shopping. It has become the biggest day of the year for American retailers as they discount thousands of products, kick-starting the Christmas shopping season. According to one story the name thus refers to shops doing such booming trade that they go from the red into the black. It might equally be named because of the casualty rate. Shoppers get hurt in the stampede for bargains. Some have even died.

Since they do not celebrate Thanksgiving, Brits had never taken to Black Friday, until last year. Then, some British retailers joined American-owned companies like Amazon to introduce big savings. This year many more have embraced it. Visa Europe predicts that shoppers will spend 6,000 per second on the day. John Lewis, a big London department store, is opening for its longest day ever, from 8am to 10pm.

With such demand, why stop at one day? Most retailers are now stretching it into the following week, at least until Cyber Monday. That’s the day after the Black Friday weekend when shoppers are supposed to go crazy online, although John Lewis reckons they won’t be able to wait that long. Last year, its mobile traffic in the peak hour 7-8am was fourteen times higher on Black Friday than anything it had seen before.(Economist)

翻译：

圣诞的节奏一直都很单一。在12月买礼物，尽情吃喝，再退还那些不中意的礼物，然后在一月大减价之际狂购便宜货到手软。而如今这样的习惯，很可能随着“黑色星期五”—美版“双十一”—登陆不列颠海岸而悄然改变。

“黑色星期五”就是每年感恩节之后的第一天。今年就是11月28日。像感恩节的主题是美食一样，“黑色星期五”的主题便是购物。因在“黑色星期五”商家们会给成千上万的商品大打折扣开启圣诞购物季，由此这一天成了美国零售商们每年最盛大的一天，有一种说法是，这个名字正说明了那些在这天生意异常兴隆的商家大额进账，转亏为盈(红色记录赤字，黑色记录盈利)。还有一种说法是因为在这天的伤亡率。顾客们会在争抢折扣商品的拥堵人群中受伤。有些人甚至会为此丧命。

因为从来不过感恩节，所以去年之前英国人对黑色星期五一直无感。而其后，部分英国零售商加盟了类似亚马逊这种美国公司来引进各种省钱方式。在今年，已有更多的零售商投入到这些公司的怀抱。据维信欧洲(Visa Europe，信用卡集团)预测，在黑色星期五这一天，购物者们将每秒消费6000英镑。英国一家大型零售商店约翰·路易斯，在这天也会迎来其史上营业时间最长的一天，从早8点直至晚上10点。

有这般需求，为何只做一天?如今，许多零售商正在将这购物狂潮延伸至“黑色星期五”后的一周，至少延至“网络星期一”。“网络星期一”是“黑色星期五”周末后的第一天，在这天购物者会在网络上疯狂购买，尽管约翰·路易斯断言顾客们不可能等那么久还如此疯狂购物。去年“黑色星期五”这天，约翰·路易斯在早高峰7点至8点间的移动流量是以往所见任何数据要高出十四倍。